Pictures of Arnside

About Arnside

This pretty village has all the ingredients of an old style fishing village with a delightful mix-match of charming properties rising up from a beach of firm golden sand littered with colourful sailing boats. The beach is backed by a pleasant promenade where you will find attractive shops and a couple of pubs, ideal for sitting with a drink enjoying the antics of the sea-birds and watching the sun go down. Or in the warmth of a summer evening you can sit and watch for the tidal bore as the tide comes in.

Arnside is a relaxing atmospheric place of beauty and tranquillity. It was once a busy boat building centre but now its prosperity comes from its wide appeal to tourists and nature lovers. The mud-flats around here provide a home to a countless variety of sea-birds, and there is also spacious areas of scientific interest where rare alpine plants flourish in limestone crevices, attracting a constant stream of delicate butterflies.

Buildings of interest in Arnside include the modern H.M. Coastguards Station built in 1992, Ye Old Fighting Cocks dates from the 17th-century and has a cock-fighting pit under the floor, imposing Salcotes Hall dates from 1679, whilst the Railway Viaduct with 50 piers spanning 522 yards was built when the line first opened in 1857. The Albion Hotel is from 1810 and still has its early warning bell which rang to tell of high tide. There is a clock to commemorate a local family and a fountain built in memory of a small child.

A wealth of natural beauty, flora and fauna can be discovered by walking the old disused Hincaster railway line and vast numbers of Wading birds and wildfowl can be seen at Leighton Moss Nature Reserve as well as in the estuary.

Arnside is within easy reach of some famous beauty spots, cross the Kent estuary by boat and you are quickly in Grange-over-Sands, travel a few miles towards Carnforth and you come to pretty Silverdale with its popular RSBP site. Drive inland and you reach historic Kendal, Windermere, Coniston Water and the magnificent Grizedale forest.

With no shortage of hospitable accommodation, good restaurants and pubs, this is an ideal region in which to spend an lovely weekend, or to tarry for a while, explore a stunning coast and visit lovely countryside.